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The battle of Christmas Ads

by Sara Correia | 22.11.2013
The days are getting shorter, temperatures are dropping and everyone can feel Christmas coming. Last weekend, after going to the South Bank for a wonder, I drank mulled wine and saw the first Christmas lights dangling from the trees. Later that day, as I was snuggling up for a fun night of X-Factor (how old do I sound?!), I was overwhelmed by Christmas Ads. And so the season begins!

The most popular Christmas ad, as it is every year, must be the John Lewis Christmas Ad. Some go as far to say that the advert marks the beginning of Christmas, and I guess it does! But looking at all the Christmas adverts on TV at the moment, it is interesting to see the different topics that each brand decided to embrace this year to appeal to their target audience and get us all in the Christmas (spending) spirit! So I decided to put together a small list of my top 3 Christmas ads:

John Lewis Christmas Ad: an animated story of an unlikely friendship between a hare and a bear. The hare feels sad that its friend will miss out on Christmas celebrations. We see the hare going to the bear’s cave, where he hibernates, and delivering a small present: an alarm clock that will wake him up in time for Christmas day.

For me John Lewis did a very good job at appealing to a very wide audience whilst keeping a certain class and quality that reflects their positioning on the high street. The emotional connection with John Lewis customers is, in my opinion, the main goal of the advert.

Tesco Christmas Ad: one of my personal favourites. This is a nostalgic approach to Christmas that I guess wants to connect to the audience on a deeper level and relate to the ‘journey’ in every man/woman’s life. The ad starts with two young adults celebrating their first Christmas as a family and takes us on a journey of family growth and happiness, from enjoying Christmas with your children to growing old and seeing your kids grow and have children of their own. All very happy and heart warming. I’m thinking Tesco was trying to emphasise the importance of family specially during the festive season whilst giving a sense that Tesco has been there every step of the way

Kmart Jow Box Christmas Advert: So this one I think it’s quite hilarious. Being aired in America though it has raised a lot of complaints especially from Kmart customers, which I guess is really not what you want out of Christmas campaigns, but there you go. The advert aims at being funny by showing a group of young men in their boxers playing Jingle Bells with their…. well, you get the idea! It might not be to everyone’s taste but who says Christmas can’t be fun?